What's your best ever graveyard DX catch?

[pianoplayer88key]

I'll tell you about what I think mine was, then I want to read about yours.

I'm about 11.22 miles at a 245.83° heading from 1240 KNSN. The station usually has the frequency all to itself 24/7, with the graveyard jumble underneath only audible when I rotate the radio to null KNSN. Typical RSSI on my PL-380 is about 54-56dBu or so.
A few years ago, back when they were KSON, and going through some changes, one evening they happened to be on the air, but broadcasting only an unmodulated carrier. Upon grabbing my Select-A-Tenna and coupling my Panasonic RQ-SW20 (the PL-380 didn't exist yet) to it, I clearly heard a station in the background identifying itself as Radio Disney. Upon checking a few sites (Radio Disney's website, Radio-Locator, FCC database), I learned that the station was none other than KALY Albuquerque, NM (actually listed in FCC database as Los Ranchos de Albuquerque), at a distance of 615.89 miles, heading of 71.26°! Using the FCC's distance calculator to calculate the reverse heading reveals that to be about 257.07°, so KALY is only a little over 11° off of 180° opposite KNSN's heading. And, yes, the local 1240 used to carry Radio Disney several years ago (possibly almost a decade by now), but they had already dropped the format and sold to another owner at least a few years before this happened.

So.. now... what's YOUR best graveyard DX? I especially want to hear of DX catches you hear on the same frequency as locals that are otherwise strong enough to have the frequency all to themselves.

 

[ddsparxx]

The best I had were on the Outer Banks of NC, I heard WCMC 1230 Wildwood, NJ, and 1450 Atlantic City, NJ last September during late morning, on the beach. In VA at night the graveyard frequencies are a huge mess.

 

[MarioMania]

Let me guess graveyard frequencies are 1200-1300

 

[ddsparxx]

Let me guess graveyard frequencies are 1200-1300

The frequencies are 1230, 1240, 1340, 1400, 1450, and 1490.

Oh, BTW, when I say the graveyard frequemncies are a huge mess, I meant hundreds of stations being heard at the same time and it's very difficult to identify them and it takes a quite of patience to find out which are which.

 

[gar hi]

These days, many other frequencies including some former clear channel frequencies can sound like graveyard frequencies. :-\

 

[crainbebo]

My best graveyard catch was 1240 KWIK Pocatello, ID on Super Bowl Sunday of this year. If I remember right, it's 579 miles, which is a good distance for Graveyard DX (not as good as tfcwings but close). I've also IDed 1450 KFLS Klamath Falls which is another good distance...close to 400 I think.

-crainbebo

 

[pianoplayer88key]

My best graveyard catch was 1240 KWIK Pocatello, ID on Super Bowl Sunday of this year. If I remember right, it's 579 miles, which is a good distance for Graveyard DX (not as good as tfcwings but close). I've also IDed 1450 KFLS Klamath Falls which is another good distance...close to 400 I think.

-crainbebo

Nice catch. Was it out from under a local on the same frequency from the opposite direction that usually has a strong enough signal to nearly obliterate the graveyard chatter like mine was?

 

[MarioMania]

These days, many other frequencies including some former clear channel frequencies can sound like graveyard frequencies. :-\

Like on 880

 

[radioman148]

This is probably cheating but my best graveyard catch was I believe a station on 1340 from Northern California while I was in Hawaii last year. Being in a place like Hawaii which is thousands of miles from anywhere allows DXers to experience what AM DX was like in the good ole days before the frequencies all got crowded. I heard KOKC in Oklahoma City everynight sometimes very strong on Oahu on a car radio.

In order to experience what MW DX was like in the 60s you have to find an isolated island somewhere far removed from civilization.
Somebody on this board awhile back mentioned an island in the South Pacific that was great for DX, but I don't remember the name.

For me DXing from Hawaii brought back those great conditions that we had here in North America 40 or 50 years ago. Many of the stations I heard not only from the mainland, but from Australia & the orient came in amazingly well.

 

[radiostuwright]

I was on the other end of a Graveyard catch, in the mid 70's, overnights at 1400 WSGA, Savannah Ga, had a call from someone at Cape Cod, Ma.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

In order to experience what MW DX was like in the 60s you have to find an isolated island somewhere far removed from civilization.

If we're talking graveyard channels, my DX lifetime goes back to the mid 60's. The night time graveyards then were terrible in Cincinnati. WUBE 1230 was about 7 air miles from me. It was listenable at night, but that's about all. I'm just guessing at this, but perhaps most of the stations on the graveyards that were going to exist were already there in the 60's.

When I was in Hawaii 7 years ago, I didn't think to check the graveyards...what are they like there? I was amazed that I could hear KNX or KFI (I forget which now) so well on a car radio. I never considered that anything less than 50KW would be worth checking. Different world in Hawaii...

 

[gar hi]

When I was growing up in New Jersey, I liked to listen to WMID 1340 from Atlantic City when we went down to the shore. Once I got back home outside of Philly, it was almost impossible to hear because of the local WHAT.

I don't recall ever hearing it at night though, at least nothing I could officially ID because of all the clutter of stations but I'm sure it was in there somewhere.

We used to visit relatives in Massapequa out on long Island and WMID had a pretty good signal up there in the daytime. I've heard WMID can even be heard at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina during the day too.

 

[radioman148]

In order to experience what MW DX was like in the 60s you have to find an isolated island somewhere far removed from civilization.

If we're talking graveyard channels, my DX lifetime goes back to the mid 60's. The night time graveyards then were terrible in Cincinnati. WUBE 1230 was about 7 air miles from me. It was listenable at night, but that's about all. I'm just guessing at this, but perhaps most of the stations on the graveyards that were going to exist were already there in the 60's.

When I was in Hawaii 7 years ago, I didn't think to check the graveyards...what are they like there? I was amazed that I could hear KNX or KFI (I forget which now) so well on a car radio. I never considered that anything less than 50KW would be worth checking. Different world in Hawaii...

You can catch some graveyarders in Hawaii, especially the ones that are DA into the Pacific. Also quite a few X-banders come in and they are only running 1KW at night.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

Not sure if this is an 'official, definitive' GY catch, but one super-Auroric overnight at the listening den in Laurelton (near JFK in Queens), in came HJAS from Colombia on 1400.

The World Radio-TV handbook at the time listed them as 3000 watts, which was three times the wattage of the North American GYers.

Every one of the six GYers was filled with Spanish that night. But HJAS was the only one I IDed. They must've been seeing the Northern Lights at the South Pole.

 

[crainbebo]

No it wasn't under any locals TFC. Nearest 1240 is 60 miles away, but suffers in the daytime (without a null) from 1250 KKDZ (Radio Disney's) IBOC crap.
-crainbebo

 

[crainbebo]

Not sure if this is an 'official, definitive' GY catch, but one super-Auroric overnight at the listening den in Laurelton (near JFK in Queens), in came HJAS from Colombia on 1400.

The World Radio-TV handbook at the time listed them as 3000 watts, which was three times the wattage of the North American GYers.

Every one of the six GYers was filled with Spanish that night. But HJAS was the only one I IDed. They must've been seeing the Northern Lights at the South Pole.

That's amazing. When was this??

-crainbebo

 

[MarioMania]

In order to experience what MW DX was like in the 60s you have to find an isolated island somewhere far removed from civilization.

If we're talking graveyard channels, my DX lifetime goes back to the mid 60's. The night time graveyards then were terrible in Cincinnati. WUBE 1230 was about 7 air miles from me. It was listenable at night, but that's about all. I'm just guessing at this, but perhaps most of the stations on the graveyards that were going to exist were already there in the 60's.

When I was in Hawaii 7 years ago, I didn't think to check the graveyards...what are they like there? I was amazed that I could hear KNX or KFI (I forget which now) so well on a car radio. I never considered that anything less than 50KW would be worth checking. Different world in Hawaii...

Is it because of the water you got L.A Stations??

 

[gar hi]

That's a good question because I've always assumed that, other than the lack of co channel interference in Hawaii, the reason those stations are received so well at night is because the signal is skipping on the saltwater as opposed to the land.

Maybe someone here with a lot more radio knowledge can confirm that?

At night, the big New York stations come in MUCH better on the east coast of Florida than they do here. The difference is remarkable. There's nothing but land between here and New York as opposed to the east coast of Flotida where it's mostly saltwater between there and New York.

For example, WABC is virtually absent most of the time here in Tampa at night and only sometimes does it come in enough to have a listenable signal at best but still weak and full of interference from other stations.

See how well it comes in on the east coast at Daytona Beach where there's a lot more water between there and the station.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn5nAuchfEw

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

Crain -- reception was the morning of 12-27-82, starting late Sunday the 26th.

I didn't speak that much Spanish then, but a fellow DJ named Reyes Burgos did, and he listened to the tape. What I thought was 'Roddio Leebertoll' he said was 'Radio Universal', with the 'univer' part said real fast. Then, we both heard the calls, something like accha - ho-tay- ah - essee.

Another Long Islander, from WAY out East there, also heard them. As another poster on this thread suggested might be so, the map certainly indicates that there was nothing but the Atlantic along what's an odd coincidence: The station and my radio were at darned near the same 72° longitude.

The taped log for that morning (a Monday morning) also included Spanish on 1530 (might have been Portuguese, hence Brasil) .... also on 1520 (Radio Minuto?) ..... on 1175 ..... 0n 900 and on 1550 (might've been Venezuela). Every AM signal say, outside 30-40 miles away was nowhere; their signals absorbed halfway through the skywave skip sequence.

Each of the the six graveyarders featured Spanish except for two: 1230 WFAS and 1240 WGBB. WGBB was close, of course, right down Sunrise Highway about eight miles. But WFAS was a semi-local at best, usually buried at night by others. But that overnight they were clear and unfading atop the frequency. I was probably getting sheer groundwave from them. Here in NE PA I've noticed that when semi-locals WAZL 1490 and WPAM 1450 are loud and clear at night, the Aurora is out, big time.

 

[cyberdad]

My best graveyard catch here northwest of Chicago would've probably been WLAY, Mussel Shoals, AL, back in the 60s on 1450. Also on 1450 around here, CHUC in Coburg, ON (60 miles east of Toronto) used to be a semi-regular catch, but I believe they were running something like 10kw, albeit directional.